Family Offices and Banks

by Richard C. Wilson & Family Offices Group Association Team

There’s a great article on the front page of Bloomberg today of a big trend in wealth management: the shift among the ultra-wealthy away from traditional and private banks to family offices. This has been a big story for years, especially since the financial crisis, as wealthy families look for a more tailored wealth management solution. The article below is a great read and it happens to mention the Family Offices Group toward the end.

They call it “money camp.” Twice a week, 6- to 11-year-old scions of wealthy families take classes on being rich. They compete to corner commodities markets in Pit, the raucous Parker Brothers card game, and take part in a workshop called “business in a box,” examining products that aren’t obvious gold mines, such as the packaging on Apple Inc.’s iPhone rather than the phone itself.

It’s all part of managing money for the wealthiest families, says Katherine Lintz, founder of Clayton, Missouri- based Financial Management Partners, which runs the camp for the children of clients. Supplying the families with good stock picks and a wily tax strategy isn’t enough anymore. These days, it’s about applying the human touch, she says.

Lintz, 58, is on to something. Her 22-year-old firm was No. 2 among the fastest-growing multifamily offices in the second annual Bloomberg Markets ranking of companies that manage affairs for dynastic clans, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue. The assets that FMP supervises grew 30 percent to $2.6 billion as of Dec. 31, just behind Signature, a Norfolk, Virginia-based family office that expanded 36 percent in 2011 to $3.6 billion.

In sheer size, the family office units of banks dominate the ranking. Nine of the top 10 are associated with banks. HSBC Private Wealth Solutions, a unit of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), is No. 1 by total assets under advisement for the second consecutive year, with $123.6 billion as of Dec. 31, an increase of 21 percent over 2010. Bloomberg

tags: family offices, banks, private banks, family office wealth management, family offices investors, family offices, family office, investors, high net worth, ultra wealthy

7 More Family Office Resources:

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